Adiposity influences intraindividual variability in behavioral and neuroelectric indices of attentional inhibition

While overweight or obesity are thought to affect over 70% of the US population, the effects of adiposity on neurocognitive efficiency and stability remain unclear. Intra-individual variability or trial-to-trial variability (IIV) could provide insights into the influence of adiposity on neurophysiological stability. However, previous work examining the association between adiposity and IIV of cognitive outcomes is limited. Thus, this study examined the association between whole-body fat (%BF) and central tendency and IIV metrics of behavioral performance and event-related potentials. Adults (n = 320; 19-64 yrs) completed the Flanker task to assess attentional inhibition with concurrent electroencephalogram recordings to examine the N2 and P3b components. In addition to central tendency outcomes typically reported (i.e., mean accuracy and reaction time [RT]), dispersion outcomes (e.g., standard deviation [SD] of RT, P3b latency, N2 latency, etc.) were also extracted. Upon controlling for age and sex, %BF was inversely associated with (congruent: β = -.18, p = .016; incongruent: β = -.23, p < .001) accuracy. Increasing %BF was related to greater RT SD (congruent: β = .13, p = .032; incongruent: β = .23, p < .001). Furthermore, increased %BF was associated with slower P3b latencies (congruent: β = .21, p = .003; incongruent: β = .18, p = .010), and greater incongruent N2 (β = .16, p = .017) and P3b (β = .16, p = .025) latency SD. These findings suggest adiposity exerts a generalized negative influence on attentional inhibition for both measures of central tendency and dispersion across behavioral and neuroelectric indices.